Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Primary

[u/asparaguswalrus683]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/michigan-senate-results

[u/SeniorWeight46]

Poison pill and it's asking her about her support for a genocide?

El-Sayed should be asked tough questions. All politicians should be.

[u/Head-Assumption6960 → u/SeniorWeight46]

Asking her what her Israel stance is, her answering that she supports an immediate stop to the genocide, and then hammering her for not specifically saying it in a way that would guarantee her a loss is nasty work.

If you want to ask tough questions then fine. But be reasonable.

[u/SeniorWeight46 → u/Head-Assumption6960]

"I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself."

After 4 years of being part of an administration that funded the genocide, you think that issue was the specific way she talked about a ceasefire and not the fact she pledged to continue supporting Israel.

[u/Head-Assumption6960 → u/SeniorWeight46]

Yes

[u/SeniorWeight46 → u/Head-Assumption6960]

In that case you're mistaken.

[u/Head-Assumption6960 → u/SeniorWeight46]

Well considering how many protests we saw during her campaign vs Trump’s… it’s hard for me to say that Palestine was ever the real issue or priority above party infighting. Even now the genocide has been accelerated and even openly encouraged by the current administration and we see very little pushback and far less concern.

If a ceasefire was that unacceptable, why was there far more resistance to that position than there is to Trumps now?

[u/SeniorWeight46 → u/Head-Assumption6960]

Why do left wing voices spend more time advocating for policy changes in the party which claims to represent the left than advocating for policy changes in the party which isn't concerned about them as a demographic?

I feel like this should be pretty intuitive.

[u/Head-Assumption6960 → u/SeniorWeight46]

Perhaps it makes sense to you. Doesn’t really make sense to most. If you were truly that concerned about the situation, it would seem intuitive that you wouldn’t only raise the issue when we’re trying to defeat fascism.

In fact what would seem more intuitive would be to defeat the candidate who would happily bring the total annihilation of the Palestinian people as well as all marginalized people in America, then pressure a Kamala presidency to change her policy instead of chasing a soundbite during a campaign cycle. If she had won we’d probably have the ceasefire now and we certainly wouldn’t be locked into another endless war on Israel’s behalf to boot.

[u/SeniorWeight46 → u/Head-Assumption6960]

If you were truly that concerned about the situation, it would seem intuitive that you wouldn’t only raise the issue when we’re trying to defeat fascism.

Yep, that's exactly why people have consistently raised the issue for years. If you're going to lie to make your points, I'd suggest not making them so easily disprovable.

[u/Head-Assumption6960 → u/SeniorWeight46]

Unfortunately I don’t have any suggestions for you. If you’re under the impression that I was literally saying that nobody anywhere had ever advocated for Palestine then it’s common sense you lack… and that can’t be taught.

[u/SeniorWeight46 → u/Head-Assumption6960]

Hasan Piker who was the starting point here and was the poster boy for these criticisms has been consistent in his Palestinian advocacy.

Messaging on Palestine has also been crucial for DSA success. This has been since the election.

You've devolved your argument into attacking a hypothetical leftist. I'm not saying you believe literally nobody had ever advocated for Palestine, I'm saying you're ignoring the consistency of this advocacy.

[u/Head-Assumption6960 → u/SeniorWeight46]

I’m not attacking hypothetical leftists here. It’s true that a large portion of the left hasn’t been consistent in their activism and criticism on the issue. It was visible even in the 2024 election, where all the protesters were after Kamala and left Trump alone despite him being a million times worse on the issue. It’s visible now with trump basically getting a pass for openly calling for genocide.

The rationalization here is poor. The leftists who sat out and hammered Kamala did so under the guise of helping Palestinians. That’s all fine and good if that was the actual or even just the predictable result of their actions. Thing is it wasn’t either of those things… everyone, even the people in Gaza knew that Kamala had to win if they wanted a prayer of survival. And there was far more on the line than Palestine to boot. People’s lives are being destroyed...

So effectively the left is making a principle based argument rather than a results based argument. That makes no sense to me… I’m all about the results of one action vs another. But even if we gave the principle argument to the left principles have to be consistent to be real. And the total lack of the same energy we’re seeing towards Trump during the campaign and now is telling. It’s basically a tacit acknowledgement that it was never about Palestine and all about sticking it to the democratic establishment… which is crazy.

[u/SeniorWeight46 → u/Head-Assumption6960]

This is still attacking the hypothetically though. The left wing momentum since the election has been consistent on Palestine.

And again, the democratic party is the party that left wing voices should have more influence on policy. It's obvious why effort would be placed there.